Episode Description: In this episode, we begin exploring the idea of Cannabis as a medicine. How has Cannabis been used as a medicine in the past? How is Cannabis being used as a medicine today? What does modern medical research have to say regarding what Cannabis can and can’t treat? Featured guests include Ethan Russo MD, Jason Miller DACM, James Taylor MD, and Kevin Spelman PhD.
Transcript:
You’re listening to the Curious About Cannabis podcast
Before we get started let me share a little disclaimer here. In this episode we are going to be discussing the medical uses of Cannabis. All of the information I present to you in this podcast is for education and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered medical advice. Never make decisions about your health based on anything you hear me or any other podcast host talk about. I’m simply sharing information that I’ve collected from talking with professionals with relevant experience or from research studies that are available. But I’m not a doctor, and you should always get your medical advice from a licensed health care professional. Now with that out of the way, let’s move on.
[Shutter]
[KEVIN SPELMAN CLIP]
Here in the state of Oregon, medical Cannabis has been available since 1998 for registered patients with a doctor’s recommendation. There are a variety of conditions that can qualify someone to join the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program, such as cancer, glaucoma, PTSD, or HIV, but the most common condition being treated with medical Cannabis, by far, is pain. At the time of this recording, in 2019, 88% of the 27,000 qualifying patients in Oregon’s Medical Marijuana Program reported severe pain as a condition that they intended to treat with Cannabis.[1] The remaining conditions ranked from most common to least common are spasms, PTSD, nausea, cancer, neurological disease, seizures, glaucoma, wasting syndrome, HIV/AIDS.[2]
Clearly people are trying to treat a wide variety of serious conditions with Cannabis. If Cannabis is an effective therapy for just some or all of these conditions, it could change the health and wellbeing for a massive amount of people currently suffering every day.
So what do we really know about Cannabis? How is Cannabis a medicine?
[INTRO]
Hey everybody, I’m Jason Wilson and you’re listening to the Curious About Cannabis podcast. Thanks for tuning in once again. In this episode we’ll be exploring the idea of Cannabis as a medicine.
And to guide our curious quest I wanted to explore several primary questions:

* How has Cannabis been used as a medicine in the past?
* How are Cannabis and Cannabis derived drugs being used as medicine today?
* How are medical claims derived? How do we determine that something is a medicine?

Let’s get started.
In 2015 the Journal of the American Medical Association published a review, acknowledging a list of therapeutic applications of Cannabis, while also expressing skepticism over others.[3] The National Academy of the Sciences, Engineering and Medicine released a lengthy 400+ page review also identifying clear therapeutic applications of Cannabis and its constituents.[4]
[NEWS CLIP][5]
I have to point out here that when we talk about the medical use of Cannabis, we aren’t just talking about smoking Cannabis. There are lots of ways to consume Cannabis, and each consumption method affects the body differently. Sure, Cannabis can be smoked or vaporized, but it can also be eaten in the form of Cannabis infused foods or taken sublingually by taking drops of a Cannabis tincture under the tongue. Cannabis can also be administered on the skin, topically. Less commonly,